Brands / Manufacturers

Brands

Borderlands 2 features many brands of Weapons, Shields, and Class Mods, all with their own special features and unique looks, as well as some brands dropped from the original game and one added. It’s not just a stats game anymore; you will most likely find a brand you tend to gravitate towards for some reason or another. Changes in brands from 1 to 2:

• Eridian weapons are now fused into E-Tech technology, found in various other brands. Note that the Eridian Brand still exists, but now found in the form of Artifacts. All artifacts are made by Eridian. Also note that Pistols and Revolvers have been combined into only Pistols.

Weapon Brands

As mentioned, now weapons are much more identifiable because of special attributes certain brands have, so some players may drift toward weapons that suit their play style, as well as use weapons that work in combination with their character skills. For example, a Siren building down her elemental tree may prefer Maliwan for the most elemental effects, or a Commando may prefer Dahl for their good accuracy, burst fire and great normal damage.

• Tediore (SMG’s, Pistols, Rocket Launchers, Shotguns) - Have the fastest reloads of any manufacturer, instead of reloading the weapon, it is thrown, dealing explosive damage with a small area of effect for normal weapons and elemental damage for elemental weapons with a small area of effect.

• Torgue (Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Pistols, Rocket Launchers) - Always fire explosive shots with a small area of effect. Also, instead of bullets, they fire mini gyro jets, which start slow but speed up the longer they are in mid-air.

• Vladof (Assault Rifle, Pistols, Rocket Launchers, Sniper Rifles) - Have a high fire rate on its own, even faster with a Vladof barrel, which fires faster the longer you hold down the trigger.

Non-Weapon Brands

There are two types of Brands that stay out of the gun spectrum of manufacturing:

These manufacturers concentrate more on improving the Shield, Class Mod, and Grenade Mod technology.

Shield Brands

New shields have also been introduced into the sequel, as well as with specific attribute to specific brands, just like the guns.

• Anshin - Have adaptive qualities, resisting damage to the last element they were hit with. Can have Normal, Fire, Electric, Corrosive, Explosive and Slag resistance.

• Bandit - Give you a “Roid” damage buff when shield is depleted, giving you a set amount of bonus melee damage.

• Dahl - Has the chance to drop a shield booster when damaged, which replenishes part of your own shield when picked up. Cannot pick up shield boosters if you are already at full capacity.

• Hyperion - Have the ability to amplify shots fired when shields are full, taking away some of your shield, but boosting your next shot by a certain amount.

• Maliwan - Can have an elemental nova effect or elemental spike effect. Nova sets off an explosion around you of the elemental type in the shield when shield are depleted. Spike deals elemental damage when coming in contact with an enemy. Spike will not work if you have no shield left.

• Pangolin - Have turtle shields, which offer the highest capacity among all manufacturers but also lower your max health.

• Torgue - Can have explosive nova or explosive spike. Nova releases an explosion around you when shields are depleted and Spike deals explosive damage to enemies that come in contact with you.

• Vladof - Has the ability to absorb bullets that hit your shield. Only takes effect when shield is full and adds whatever round hit you to your total magazine.